Dancing Shoes
by Trickster Puppet
Summary: For Luna, there have only been two things that she has loved so much that it has consumed her entirely. Dancing, and... him.


Dancing Shoes

_**Dancing shoes **; flowers ; sand ; music ; butterfly ; love ; lust ; intertwine ; picnic ; strawberries ; reading ; special T-shirt ; bells ; mistletoe ; blue mittens ; bandages ; gramophone ; orange peels ; rubber duck ; fragrance ; irritated ; ceremony ; red ; blood ; embrace ; moonlight ; kiss ; secret meeting ; philosophy ; good punch ; pain_

_Together, apart, spin and bow. Lift, lower, jump once, point twice._

A pair of pale, worn blue shoes danced to the music of their life. Made from the softest of Faerie silks, they were padded on the soles and toes – slightly flattened instead of a point. There were scuff marks on the sides and point, and a single thread was coming loose on the lefts stitching. However, these characteristics did not make them sad, nor stop. It made them proud, made them want to dance all the more.

A waltz, now. The shoes moved fluidly, imagining a manlier pair across from them – no, not imagining, _remembering._ It had been so long since they had danced with a partner, all they had now was each other and their memories. Their partners had once come every other day, and they would dance, and then rest and simply _be._ Those days had stopped abruptly, without warning. One day those glossy black shoes were there, tap dancing or swinging the pale blue slips of cloth through the air, the next they were gone. No more dancing, no more loving.

The shoes steps became slower, more aware of their loss. Their dance was mournful, as their thoughts once again moved on, this time to when they would dance on their own, but not on their own. Together, they were a quarter, sometimes they were a half. They were only a whole when they danced with their glossy black partners. It had been so long since they had been even a half. They had been half only once more after the last time they were whole.

Now, as they danced, a hand came into view. It appeared pale, slightly wrinkled and velvety soft. It scooped up the silk slips of blue as they stopped dancing to watch, and soon a face came into view. Thin lips were curled up a wistful smile that caused the lines on the womans face to crinkle, adding to the wrinkes already etched on her pale skin. Large eyes peered out from above a small nose and beneath long, pale lashes and brows. The orbs were almost the same blue as the shoes, only more silver then the silken slips. Emotions swirled within them, mirroring the smile – sad ,wistful, and yet so blissfully content. The lips parted, and the shoes watched on with growing recognition as a sligh slipped from between the pale rose lines.

The skin was wrinkled, instead of the smoothness they were so used to, but it was the same pale cream. The hair, once a light gold, was now white, but as messy as it had always been. A light shining from behind the woman caused her hair to shimmer, as if diamonds had been scattered throughout.

The first time the shoes had seen her, she was young and almost as beautiful as she was now – then, she didn't have so much life as she did now. The shoes rememebered how they had been lifted from the soft white paper they had rested among in the box, lifted to face this girl, now a woman, in the soft golden glow of many candles which surrounded a room with a large tree in one corner, and two older people scattered about. At that time, the shoes remembered thinking she looked so much like that older woman. They had heard the girl call the older woman mother, and the older man father, and so that was what they called them from then on. The girl, they called Luna.

_And she was their moon in the darkness._

_  
_The time that passed since that day was full of happiness and memories. At that time they had been whole, but one day, a pair of glossy black shoes joined them, and they realized they had only been half. The pale blue shoes and glossy black ones were a perfect match – they were right, they belonged, they were equal. And so they danced.

However, those days were now long gone, but they could see themselves reflected in Luna's eyes, and the memories. They shared each others loss and love, they were one... and yet they were still so far apart. The shoes found themselves being carried, and then felt themselves lower as Luna sat. She held them so tenderly; if they were able to shed tears like she did, they would. The gentle caressing of her fingers caused the thoughts of the shoes to slow, and they barely noticed as they were lowered even further. They were only jolted out of their half slumber by the cool wooden floor.

The fingers continued to caress the silken shoes, and another sigh sounded throughout the room as one shoe was lifted. The other, for a moment, was confused – then it too, was lifted, as Luna slipped on her dancing shoes.


End file.
